Skyteam partner to Australia/New Zealand
 

Hi,

I have a bunch of miles on Delta only but there doesn't seem to be any airline in Skyteam that offers service to those destinations from LAX.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to use Skymiles to get there?

Rob

It is a longer way. But your only option currently is KE through Korea.

...or CO via Guam (to Cairns).

Another possibility is to think outside the box.....or in this case....think outside of Skyteam.

Hawaiian Airlines recently became a partner of Delta....and offers limited service from HNL to SYD.

An LAX-HNL-SYD routing should be possible......via a combo of Delta and Hawaiian flights.

Granted....it will be rather hard to get 'up front' on Hawaiian.....but last I checked, there was coach availability on various dates over the next 9 months.

You can even search for awards that include Hawaiian flights on Delta.com

A.J.

Let's not forget the new partner China Southern.

In essence you can get there on Hawaiian, Korean, Continental, or China Southern. Singapore also flies to Australia/NZ but I don;t think you can get there using DL miles.

Anyway there is a master thread about getting to Australia that this could be merged with.

<<<<<<<<<< Keeping his fingers crossed that with the NW merger, DL will start flying the 787 to Australia!!!

Thanks for the suggestions.

Specifically, I was looking at a cruisetour which starts in Auckland and ends in Sydney. Anyway to get to those two city pairs from LAX?

Rob

Wouldn't that be FABULOUS??? :D

Do not count on the "Papier-mâché" aircraft. Boeing has slipped the schedule again, just as I was telling the Dreamliner (what an appropriate name) cheerleading section here over a year ago. Delta and Northwest have announced a combined loss of over $10B for the most recent quarter. Something tells me that any major new aircraft deliveries, beyond what's already in the pipeline, will most likely be deferred.

By the way, before anyone gets the wrong idea, I'm a big fan of Boeing aircraft, and I personally do not care for Airbus aircraft or the Airbus business model.

Checking the ST website.

LAX-ICN-AKL, LAX-SFO-ICN-AKL, LAX-SEA-ICN-AKL

SYD-ICN-LAX, SYD-ICN-HNL-LAX

I took KE via ICN a couple of years ago, and although long, was quite tolerable. Watches lots of movies LAX to ICN, then slept ICN to SYD. Over 24 hours door to door, but quite worth it. KE business class was decent, although I like the DL product more. However, I was in their old business seat.

And absolutely zero award availability!

Thanks for alerting me to the Skyteam website. I assumed ST was meaning Skyteam. All the possible routing is there, and indeed I can get there with just one connection on KE. Now just hoping there will be seats available up front. Any experience in redeeming on KE?

Rob

I've had excellent luck with KE awards in business. Mrs P and I did TPA-ATL-ORD-ICN-AKL-ICN-SEA-ATL-TPA last year and I am holding PEK-ICN for this coming July (but DL's 777 back home this time). Aircraft and service were quite acceptable; not a SG or MH but quite fine for the price (like $35 or so!). Of course, with the current apparent dearth of award seats.....

I also recently had good experience booking KE J to SYD with skymiles. Got the dates I wanted with one phonecall. Just watch out for KE's blackout dates.

The trip is long, but I'll fully use my long afternoon layover in ICN.